When to Hire an Assistant

"Coaching changed my business and my life."

This is a frequently asked question: when should I hire an admin? How do I know if it’s the right time? Travis Robertson dives in and explains the five tell tale signs that you’re ready for an administrative assistant. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, behind on your follow-up calls and emails, and unorganized, this video is for you! Are you ready to hire an admin?

When to Hire an Assistant

This is a question I get asked all the time. “Travis, when should I bring on an admin? How do I know if it’s the right time?” Today we’re going to be looking at five tell-tale signs that you’re ready for an administrative assistant.

You’re Overwhelmed

You are completely overwhelmed and exhausted. You have those days where you get done, you go home and your husband/wife/boyfriend/girlfriend looks at you and goes “baby, what did you do today?” and you’re like “man, I’m so exhausted! But I don’t know. I don’t know what I got done today. It feels like all I did was run around.” If you are feeling overwhelmed, like you can’t get ahead, you can’t get control over your schedule, your business, or your life, you’re ready for an administrative assistant. That’s the first sign.

You Suck at Details

I’m a big picture thinker. Most of us as entrepreneurs/business owners, we are big picture people. We are not detail people. If you suck at details, which most of us do, you’re probably ready for an administrative assistant. If you’re not focused on the details, nobody is. You’ve got to have somebody with a detail oriented personality who’s able to handle all of that for you so that you don’t have to worry about it.

You’re Working Nights

I know too many people who are spending their evenings at work when they should be focused on their personal life, their relationships, their family, their kids, or whatever it is. If your nights are spent catching up with whatever you didn’t get done during the day, you’re ready for an administrative assistant. You should not be working nights.

Too many people think this has to be a 24/7, 365 business and I’m here to tell you that it doesn’t have to be that way. If it is that way, you’ve got to make some adjustments and you’ve got to bring on an assistant.

Your Follow Up is Falling Through

You’re not getting back to your clients on time. You’re not getting back to your prospects on time. You want to be able to provide top tier service to your clients, right? If your follow up is falling through, you’re not doing that, and it’s because you’re overworked doing administrative paperwork, things that truthfully are not worth the time that you’re investing into them based off what else you could be doing. You want to be focused on the most dollar productive activities, which is talking to people, having those conversations, engaging with the leads, engaging with the clients so that you’re staying on top of those most important relationships. If you’re overworked and you’re overwhelmed and your follow up is falling through, you’ve got to be looking at bringing on an admin.

BGA

These are your business generating activities. These are things like generating new leads. These are things like your prospecting, your follow up calls, anything that you’re going to do that’s going to generate new business, new clients, or new leads for your business. If you’re not able to focus on that, all you’re doing is focusing on your BSA, your business servicing activities, which is fine. You need to focus on some business servicing activities, but you’ve also got to think about how you’re going to be generating new business so you actually have business to service. If you’re not generating new business, it won’t be long before you don’t have any business to service. You’ve got to be focused on our BGA’s.

Pro Tip

If you want to really take your business to the next level, here’s what I want you to keep in mind: you need to hire earlier than you think. Most people wait until they have all of these things happening before they hire. You need to be smarter than that. Hire someone before you get to this stage, before you’re overwhelmed, before you’re working nights, before your follow up is falling through. If you wait until all of these things are there, you’re at critical mass. You’re in danger territory. You’re at risk of having bad client experiences that people talk about. You don’t want them to go on Zillow/Trulia and leave you bad reviews. The key is to hire actually earlier than you think.

If any of these things apply, you’re ready for an admin, but be the one thinking ahead. If you see that you’re heading this direction, it’s time.You need to bring on an admin.